India, April 18 -- Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, who had taken the top job just last month, is now flattening the leadership team, with important chip groups reporting directly to him. This is one of his first major moves to turn around the Silicon Valley chipmaker which has been facing years of problems.

The semiconductor giant's executive team had previously included many business unit leaders, with technical leaders often layers below the CEO, news agency Reuters reported.

The flattening move follows Tan's public comments of aiming to trim layers of management from the company, so that executive leadership would work more closely with its engineers.

As a result, three longtime technical executives - Rob Bruckner, Mike Hurley and Lisa...